New Addition to Brownsville's Ghost Fleet Arrives at the Port

 By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon

Forrest Sherman class destroyer USS Barry, DD-033

Another former U.S. Navy warship made its way through the Brownsville Ship Channel Thursday. The former USS Barry (DD-933) was a Forrest Sherman-class destroyer. She was launched in 1955 and spent over 25 years in the fleet, spending the majority of her service in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. She saw service during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam Conflict, where she earned two battle stars.

The former USS Barry joins an entire fleet of commercial vessels and warships that have made the Port of Brownsville their final resting place as they meet the cutter's torch. Shipbreaking and metal recycling are big businesses out at the Port, where a handful of companies have operated since the early 2000's.

She was the third U.S. destroyer to be named after Philadelphia native Commodore John Barry, an officer in the Continental Navy during the Revolutionary War. He is known as "The Father of the Modern Navy." The navy currently has named a fourth ship, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer after Commodore Barry.

The Beacon has written an article about Brownsville's Ghost Fleet in the past. Up until now, most of the military ships broken up at the Port were former aircraft carriers. International Shipbreaking, LTD. has also scrapped an amphibious assault ship. 

USS Barry was decomissioned in 1982. She was then turned into a museum ship, the Display Ship Barry, and was on display at the Washington Navy Yard until 2015, when the cost of maintenance and upkeep proved too high. DS Barry would eventually be towed away to the inactive ship facility at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. 

Captain Patrick Murphy, the proprietor of Isla Tours & Captain Murphy's, a boat tour agency located at South Padre Island, posted a video to social media showing a pair of tugboats escorting the former destroyer through the water, her radar masts have been cut off and the number 933 that had once been emblazoned on the front of the hull was gone. Her five inch deck guns and her aft rocket launcher were still recognizable as she made her way along the channel to her final resting place.

Display Ship Barry at the Washington Naval Yard

She joins other ships moored along the Port. Cutters torches were already fired up this morning and sparks were flying as workers were already hard at work cutting up another massive gray hull. 

It is a pity these once great warships can't find a final resting place as a museum ship. It would be nice if Brownsville could be mentioned in the same breath as Jacinto City or Corpus Christi. It would be nice if the Texas Gulf Coast would be recognized as the country's spot for museum ships instead of being known as a ship graveyard.

However, we are fortunate those cutting torches are burning at the Port. We are fortunate Brownsvillians have those shipbreaking jobs, and it is good the steel recycled from the dismantling of these ships will be put to use once again. 

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